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<\/p>\nLet me tell you my personal experience in Spain and why I think Antequera my home away from home<\/u>. If you have read my previous blog entries, you would have already known that I have traveled to Spain several times for a football immersion program. I am a football coach and together with my colleagues, we bring a delegation of youth football players to enhance their football skills by learning from the best local, seasoned coaches. And although we all know that the famous football teams are stationed in big Spanish cities like Barcelona and Madrid, we did not bring our delegation to those cities\u2019 football schools; instead we chose to bring them to a rural town called Antequera. Our reason for not choosing city football schools is quite simple \u2013 great players like Sergio Ramos, Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo do not come from big cities. In fact, they also grew up in small towns similar to Antequera where they developed their tremendous football skills before they were taken in by these big teams.<\/p>\n
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Antequera is a small and friendly town under the province of Malaga which is part of the autonomous region known as Andaluc\u00eda. If you are an avid reader of Paolo Coelho\u2019s novels and have read his famous book entitled \u201cThe Alchemist,\u201d then you would have a rough idea of how Antequera looks like because the setting of that book is in the meadows of Andaluc\u00eda. And if you have imagined the place as you read the book, then you probably painted the same picture as I did years ago when I read the book. When I arrived in Antequera the first time a couple of years ago, I immediately fell in love with its quietness and simplicity. The place is filled with vast fields of olives at one part and another part filled with uniform-colored homes. Upon seeing the town\u2019s simple beauty, I thought to myself Antequera my home away from home<\/em>.<\/p>\n Before telling you the many different places I visited in Antequera, I want to tell you first how to get to this part of Spain. The first time we brought a delegation to Spain, we honestly weren\u2019t aware of the distances between cities. When we arranged our travel itinerary, we just arranged it according to what we thought was easier and convenient. So we booked tickets to Madrid\u2019s Barajas Airport, then booked a private bus that will take us to Atocha Madrid or the train station, then booked the Renfe or the bullet train to Malaga, and finally booked another private bus to Antequera. On paper, the travel itinerary seemed doable. I mean, how difficult is it to deplane and ride the train, right? Oh, what an experience it was! When we arrived in Madrid, my friend called the bus company that\u2019ll pick us up. It turns out that bus drivers in Spain are usually elders so we had little help loading 20 something luggage into the bus\u2019s luggage compartment. The bus ride to the station is short one so while we were still catching our breaths, we found ourselves unloading 20 something luggage off the compartment. We walked from the stop to the train station and finally to the platform. When our train arrived, we again had to bring in our luggage. The luggage compartment of the coach was not enough for our luggage so we had to place our bags in our leg space. Imagine, traveling for more than 2 hours with our legs up on our luggage. What a tiring adventure it was! Once we reached Malaga station, we were picked up by another bus and it took another 45 minutes to get to Antequera. Tired as we all were, the beauty of Antequera replaced our exhaustion with excitement.<\/p>\n Of course we no longer followed this travel route in the succeeding years we visited Antequera. Instead of flying to Madrid, we flew to Barcelona first, stayed there a couple of night, took a 45-minute flight to Malaga, and then rode a private bus to Antequera.<\/p>\n The short bus ride from Malaga\u2019s train station to Antequera was an interesting ride for me. I actually didn\u2019t see much man-made structures instead I saw a lot of hills, meadows, limestone formations, and the like. What caught my attention as we got closer to Antequera was a large mountain that has a silhouette of a man\u2019s face. As the driver was cruising along the long road, I heard him say \u201cEso es La Pe\u00f1a de los Enamorados\u201d or the Lover\u2019s Rock. He said in Spanish that this mountain is a very famous mountain in Andaluc\u00eda. According to him, a tragic legend tells the love story between a royal Muslim young lady from Malaga City named Tagzona and a Christian young man from Antequera named Tello. Because of their religious backgrounds, their relationship was not supported by either family so they decided to run away towards a limestone mountain. As they ran away, they were chased by Moorish soldiers and because they didn\u2019t want to be separated again, they decided to jump off the mountain. The mountain eventually reshaped to resemble a face of young man.<\/p>\n To get a better view of the mountain, our delegation visited the famous Plaza San Sebastian. From there, we walked up towards the ruins of an old Moorish castle. Atop the short hike is a beautiful Catholic church known as Iglesia del Carmen Alcazaba. It was under reconstruction when we saw it but the view in front of the church is so amazing. From there you can see the panoramic view of Antequera and of course the Lover\u2019s Rock. You should come here a couple of hours before sunset and just enjoy a glass of wine and a plate of tapas as you wait for dusk.<\/p>\n I remember during one of my rest days in Antequera, I rented a bike from the hotel for only \u20ac3. Since Antequera is a biker-friendly town, I biked towards the hills. I borrowed a GPS from the hotel so I won\u2019t get lost. As I looked at my GPS, I saw the place known as Torcal and decided to go to it. It was quite a distance and an uphill ride but since I was already halfway, I decided to proceed to the destination. When I got there, I was wowed by what I saw. Torcal is a place filled with natural landforms like rock formations and karst. I actually regretted not bringing camera because it was such a unique landscape. When I got back to the hotel, I realized that I biked about 25km according to the GPS. I asked the concierge about the place and the front desk told me that it is a UNESCO Heritage Site and it is quite famous in Spain.<\/p>\n There are many places to see in Antequera. I have yet to explore other natural and manmade landmarks like the caves, dungeons, and many more. I can\u2019t wait to go to Antequera my home away from home.<\/p>\n Did you get curious about Antequera\u2019s natural landscape and hidden gems? Then I encourage you to plan an itinerary the soonest time possible. First, you will need to apply for a Schengen visa. Here are the requirements:<\/p>\nAntequera My Home Away from Home \u2013 How we got there<\/h2>\n
Antequera My Home Away from Home \u2013 What we saw:<\/h2>\n
Antequera My Home Away From Home \u2013 Are you interested to go?<\/h2>\n